In my opinion, this is the most difficult of the four skills to master. With this skill I feel that we are really 'putting ourselves out there'. There is nowhere to hide. Once the words are out of our mouth that's it, we've made the mistake.

However, it is the skill that we can improve the most from practicing. We can ask native speakers to be honest and correct obvious mistakes, or we may realise as we are speaking that we have made a mistake. I speak from experience here. There are many times I've said something and realised afterwards I should have said it differently. We learn through making mistakes and although it may feel embarrassing at the time it will help us learn in the long run.

These are my top 5 tips to improve your speaking skills:

Listening

Speak as often as possible

Build your vocabulary

Read aloud

Practice, practice, practice

1. Listening

You can learn a lot from paying attention to the listening part of a conversation. Often the person you are speaking to may repeat back the sentence you said, but use a different word. This could be a signal that we used an incorrect word 0r an opportunity to learn a synonym. You may talk about being 'happy' at a wedding and your friend talks about it being a 'joyous' occasion. Both are good words to talk about being happy.

2. Speak as often as possible

As you know making mistakes when speaking can feel embarrassing, so how about speaking to someone you don't know very well? You won't ever have to see them again and do you care what they think? Finding someone you don't know very well is easy, ever stood in a queue at the supermarket? Waited next to someone at the market stall? These are all great opportunities to engage in small talk conversation and practice your new language as often as possible! Being English I often talk about the weather and this can be a great starting point. It's something everyone has an opinion on!

Don't worry about what the person thinks of your accent, your grammar or perhaps your limited vocabulary. Go with what you know and they will appreciate that you tried. I've been practicing speaking Dutch for fifteen years now and can still become stuck for words during a conversation. People just appreciate that you have tried.

3. Build your vocabulary

You can do this by practicing some of the reading and listening skill tips mentioned in previous posts. One of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to speaking is coming up short in the words you want to use. Increasing your vocabulary will help with this, as will regular speaking practice where you are required to 'think on your feet'. Help your brain to make faster connections by giving it plenty of practice.

When preparing for an important conversation such as an interview, or parents evening at your child's school, try to role play the conversation. This could be using AI to have a conversation or practicing with someone real. I speak from experience when I say, if you go to a parent's evening, make sure you understand all the words on your child's report. This will save some embarrassment when you sit down in front of their teacher!

4. Read aloud

Choose a book of any length or difficulty and practice saying the words on the page out loud. You could ask a native speaker to listen and correct your pronunciation. This will be scary but a great way to learn! You can also use a translation tool to check the pronunciation of new words.

5. Practice, practice, practice

Perhaps this is the most important tip of all! You will not improve in any of the skills unless you practice. In the process of practicing we will make mistakes, there's no getting away from that. This is particularly difficult if we are perfectionists or are especially good at all of these skills in our own language.

We have to keep the end goal at the front of our minds. We want to improve in the language we are set upon learning. Why? Either because we have an exam to pass or because we live in that language and it will make our lives easier. Unfortunately there's no getting away from the fact that it will be hard work, but try to make it enjoyable for yourself by following some of the tips that appeal to you most.

Wishing you all the best in your language journey!

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